Football or no football, UAB's Watts has still got to go

Typically, I don't like calling for anybody's resignation or demanding that somebody be fired, not for any high-minded appearance of impartiality, but mostly because I don't like to look like the chump.

You've seen it before.

First there's the obligatory throat-clearing, followed by the stentorian account of the accused's crimes, capped off by the demand - go back from whence you came!

And then the chucklehead stays put and you wind up looking like a putz.

I say all this to say ...

(Clearing throat)

... that Ray Watts has still got to go.

In the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of Kremlinology going on at UAB. Will Watts bring back football or won't he? What's he saying in those secret meetings? Why does the supposed dollar figure needed from boosters keep changing? When will the university make an announcement?

And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

An announcement should be coming Monday, and most folks involved seem to think that football in some form might be coming back.

However, this fixation on will-he-or-won't-he is a diversion from something that should be obvious at this point. This whole saga has been one big disaster - an unnecessary fiasco that should have been avoided.

Unless Watts sweats, cries and begs forgiveness Monday like a televangelist confessing on TV to an affair, he's still got to go.

The indictment, please.

At best, the Carr Report was a rationalization, not a justification, and you cannot rationalize what is not already justified. It was an analysis crafted to fit a conclusion. When CarrSports showed the university some preliminary numbers in April 2014, the firm was directed to analyze alternatives. The fact that CarrSports never really finished the job it was contracted to perform - to draft a comprehensive strategic plan for UAB athletics - has never really been addressed.

It's also never really been addressed how UAB threw away two other sports - women's bowling and rifle - because, well, they didn't need those ladies anymore. Title IX has required colleges and universities to offer sports for women in parity with men, and dumping those two programs goes to show that the university didn't care the least bit for those athletes except to meet a quota. At least UAB got rid of football because it was expensive. It dumped the women's programs because it thought they were cheap.

And from documents leaked to the public - documents which the Alabama Media Group and others requested but were denied - it is evident that Watts and other administrators had made a decision to kill those programs as early as August and were preparing to announce that decision in September. They delayed the announcement because they were afraid football players would walk off the field or transfer to other schools before the 2014 season would be done.

UAB, under Watts' leadership, stalled to avoid one embarrassment and opted instead for another.

When the announcement came down, Watts met with the players. All he needed to do was sit in a chair at the front of the room and listen. Instead, he got all haughty and told the players he loved UAB more than they did.

Then Watts effectively went into hiding, only to emerge when the outcry left him unable to go outside without a police escort. He has stuck to his story about how he made the decision to kill those programs (if, indeed, it was his decision) even after there has been evidence to show that story to be a lie.

Rather than freeing employees to speak openly to the public, coaches and staff have had to sign non-disparagement agreements. Others have been effectively paid to stay quiet. Documents which should be public records under Alabama law have been kept secret with invented exceptions to the law.

Ray Watts might be a decent neurologist, but he has been a lousy administrator. As UAB's chief executive, he's demonstrated how not to run an institution, public or private.

More to the point, he's not a good leader, and right now, UAB needs a good leader.

Whatever happens Monday, if that's when he decision comes down, it shouldn't be enough to satisfy the masses by reinstating football.

Watts should resign or the trustees should send him from whence he came.